Ottawa a ‘winter wonderland’ with Winterlude and a fully-open canal

OTTAWA — David Wilson and Jackie Eckholm dreamt of attending Winterlude and skating on the Rideau Canal after their last visit to Ottawa nine years ago.

When the Chicago couple saw on the news in January that the city’s iconic Rideau Canal Skateway had been opened to the public, they immediately booked their trip to Canada’s capital.

Eckholm said she and Wilson — who were walking down Sparks St. on Friday morning looking at the ice sculptures set up for Ottawa’s annual winter festival — have loved spending time in a “winter wonderland.” She said they skated, had drinks at the Château Laurier, rode the O-Train and checked out the Royal Canadian Mint.

“We landed Wednesday night, woke up for the big storm and that was awesome because Midwestern winters are wimpy these last few years,” said Eckholm, who loves Canada and joked that she secretly hopes Canada annexes the U.S.

Wimpy would have been the word to describe the last two winters in Ottawa too, when temperatures never plunged low enough, for long enough, for winter activities to abound. The canal skating rink never opened at all in 2023, a historic first, and in 2024 was open for only a handful of days on a very narrow portion, with poor skating conditions.

The ice sculptures as often as not were insulated under tarps trying to keep them from melting, and most did not make it through the entirety of Winterlude intact.

But Mother Nature in 2025 has delivered what the city needed for its winter festival fun.

Winterlude typically sees around 600,000 visitors each year over the three weekends, and around a third of them come from out of town, says the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.

The festival, which runs until Feb. 17, has two official sites — on Sparks St. and at “Snowflake Kingdom” in Gatineau. At the sites, visitors can try maple syrup taffy, see light shows and ride slides.

It takes over 600 volunteers to run the event. About 100 of them spend their shifts dressed as Ice Hog, the event’s mascot.

Ines Akué, a spokesperson for Canadian Heritage, said 2025 has seen a return of the “buzz and excitement” surrounding the festival.

“With the weather co-operating and the iconic Rideau Canal Skateway being open, visitors came out en masse to our two official sites to enjoy events and activities that celebrated winter and showcased Canadian artistic and cultural diversity,” Akué said in an email.

The Rideau Canal Skateway — a key component of an Ottawa winter — has been enjoying its busiest season since 2019, said the National Capital Commission.

NCC spokesperson Maryam El- Akhrass said the organization has counted over 755,000 canal visits since the skateway opened on Jan. 11. The 7.8-kilometre skateway fully opened to the public on Jan. 18.

“We expect our millionth visit to happen next week,” El- Akhrass said, adding that consistently cold temperatures have helped ice conditions.

In 2018-19, the skateway was open for 59 days and was visited almost 1.5 million times.

Jenny Zhao, who was on the canal Friday morning, said she gets out to skate on the canal whenever she can.

“It’s just so, so much fun and so enjoyable,” said Zhao. “In the winter … when the sun is out, you see the people smiling.”

Jérôme Miousse, director of public affairs for Ottawa Tourism, said Winterlude has been particularly busy this year.

“This year, the first two weekends of Winterlude combined saw higher hotel demand compared to 2024, with the first weekend nearly matching the same weekend in 2020, a record year,” Miousse said. “As for the third weekend, we are cautiously optimistic about achieving a high occupancy rate, weather permitting.”

Geneviève Latulippe, CEO of Outaouais Tourism, said Winterlude is a “magical” event.

“The team behind the event works very hard to diversify the program, year after year, so that there is something for all tastes and temperatures,” Latulippe said.

The last weekend of Winterlude is coinciding with Flag Day celebrations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2025.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press